When taking a date to the prom, Royal answered, "Dance with the one that brung ya."

For Muskegon Summer Celebration, sticking with the "one that brung ya" still means loving that old-time rock'n'roll.

Classic rock has been Summer Celebration's foundation throughout the festival's 16 years. That's still true, even though the 11-day festival booked three nights of country and three nights of alternative rock this year. Four nights still belong to classic rock or something close to it.

"Classic rock is still our foundation," said Tim Lipan, chairman of the festival's main concert stage at Heritage Landing. "We've had great attendance this year, and that helps prove it when we have the classic rock nights."

With the "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar, former lead singer of the band Van Halen, scheduled to close Summer Celebration '08 tonight, three classic rock concerts this year already have drawn an estimated 43,500 people to Heritage Landing: 14,500 on June 26 for The Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker, 12,000 on June 28 for Kansas, and a near sellout of 17,000 Tuesday for REO Speedwagon and Blue Oyster Cult.

The Red Rocker

One reason that classic rock remains popular, according to people in the know, is classic acts also tend to be class acts. They keep it clean.

"It's very familiar," said Andy O'Riley, the morning-drive announcer and program director at Muskegon radio station WMRR (101.7 FM), a classic/mainstream rock station. "The REOs and the Kansases and the Blue Oyster Cults and things like that, they're a good, rockin' show.

"People aren't afraid to take their kids to it because they're reasonably sure that (those acts) aren't going to come out and drop a bunch of swear words or F-bombs or do some offensive material or things like that."

"Classic" doesn't mean it's stagnant. One-time classic rockers such as Creedence Clearwater Revival or The Doors might now be considered oldies but goodies, or as some pundits label it, geezer or dinosaur rock.

"Those guys had their core of success upwards of 20 years ago," O'Riley said. "As time goes on, classic gets redefined, and I think that you're seeing a newer wave of quote-unquote classic rock."

Classic rock tends to span generations. It is not necessarily confined to the post-World War II baby boomers, the oldest of whom are now entering their 60s. It appeals to their kids -- and grandkids. And that can mean sizable concert audiences at festivals such as Muskegon Summer Celebration.

"(Classic rock) keeps finding new age groups because kids grow into that kind of music," O'Riley said. "These kids' parents grew up with it, and in turn the kids have been exposed to it their whole lives, so it's familiar to everybody, and you get a decent crowd."

In addition to country and classic rock, Summer Celebration '08 booked three nights of so-called "active" or "alternative" rock acts such as Seether, Finger Eleven, Staind, Hinder, Switchfoot and Sister Hazel.

"We intentionally were going after some active rock, which tends to skew a little bit younger as far as audiences," Lipan said. "If you look at our schedule over the past couple of years, we've pretty much been able to accomplish that, where we're having active-rock nights that appeal to a bit of a younger audience."

The festival's music mix might be in for a change. The success of this year's country shows has been noted.

"Our formula still works," Lipan said. "A good variety, a foundation of classic rock, throw two or three nights of country in there, a couple of nights of active rock and we're pretty much close to filling up the festival.

"If you look at a lot of the festivals out there, and even the sheds like DTE Energy Theater, they're all still doing classic rock. And they wouldn't be doing it if they weren't being successful."